[Tennessee Trails News] TWRA reports White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee Bats

[The Tennessee Trails List]

TWRA has reported the first cases of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee 
bats. Their complete press release follows. The closure of caves on 
public land, announced in July 2009, continues, and the closure of 
privately owned caves is also being encouraged. TTA chapters have been 
asked to refrain from scheduling outings involving cave entry.

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has 
received confirmation that two bats have tested positive for White Nose 
Syndrome (WNS), a white fungus that is responsible for the deaths of 
thousands of bats in the Eastern United States.

This is the first record of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee. The bats 
were hibernating in Worley’s cave in Sullivan County.  Three tri-colored 
bats were collected by the TWRA and submitted to the National Wildlife 
Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wis. for testing last week.

Last spring the state of Tennessee, National Park Service, and USDA 
Forest Service and Tennessee Valley Authority closed caves on public 
lands in Tennessee in an attempt to slow the spread of the fungus. The 
Nature Conservancy also closed caves located on their lands in Tennessee.

Scientists are trying to determine the cause of WNS and its effects. 
Once a colony is affected, the fungus spreads rapidly and has killed at 
least 95 percent of bats at one New York hibernation site in two years. 
Other northeastern U.S. monitored bat colonies affected by WNS are 
experiencing similar large fatalities. There have been no reported human 
illnesses attributed to WNS and there is currently no evidence to 
suggest that WNS is harmful to humans or other organisms.

Preliminary research results recently released by the United States 
Geological Survey indicates that the potential exists for WNS to be 
transmitted between bat hibernation caves as an unwanted hitch-hiker 
upon humans, their clothing, or other caving gear.

"Temporarily staying out of caves and mines is the one thing we can do 
right now to slow the transmission of White Nose Syndrome,” said Cory 
Holliday, Cave and Karst Manager for The Nature Conservancy in 
Tennessee. “We knew the bat deaths in the Eastern United States were 
large. Here in Tennessee we stand to lose the last stronghold of bats 
like the endangered Indiana and grays. We have hundreds of thousands of 
bats hibernating in our caves each winter. With a 95 percent mortality 
rate the loss is catastrophic.”

Biologists are concerned that WNS could devastate populations of 
endangered Indiana and gray bats. Bats play a key role in keeping 
insects such as agricultural pests, mosquitoes and forest pests under 
control.

“Bats provide a tremendous public service in terms of pest control, said 
Richard Kirk, Nongame and Endangered Species Coordinator for the 
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. If we lose 500,000 bats, we’ll lose 
the benefits from that service and millions of pounds of insects will 
still be flying around our neighborhoods, agricultural fields and forests.”

The disease causes bats to use up their fat reserves rapidly during 
hibernation. This causes the bats to fly out of caves during the winter 
in a desperate attempt to find food, but since the insects they eat are 
also seasonally dormant, the bats soon die of starvation.

State and federal agency biologists and non-governmental organizations 
are currently surveying caves in east Tennessee and other portions of 
the state. These surveys are being conducted as annual bat population 
surveys and to monitor for WNS.

Links to more information: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html


---TWRA---